Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai speaks before the United Nations Youth Assembly July 12, 2013 at UN headquarters in New York. PHOTO: AFP

UNITED NATIONS: Almost ten months after she was shot in the head by the Taliban in the reclaimed Swat valley, teenage peace activist Malala Yousafzai took to the stage at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Friday, to urge for education as the weapon of change in the face of extremism.

“They thought the bullet would silence us. But they failed. Out of that silence came thousands of voices. Terrorists thought they could change our aims and our ambitions. Nothing changed, but this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, courage and fervour was born.”

On October 9, 2012 the Taliban had shot Malala and two of her school friends. The National Youth Peace prize winner was left with a bullet wound on the left side of her forehead.

“One girl among many. I speak – not for myself, but for all girls and boys. I raise up my voice – not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard,” she said in a determined manner.

Not against anyone

But Malala insisted that her purpose for being at the UN was not hate or to seek revenge.

“I am not against anyone. Neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorists group. I am here to speak up for the right of education of every child.”

“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born. I am the same Malala. My ambitions are the same, my dreams are the same,” she said.

Malala’s injuries had left her in hospital for over three months in two countries. Despite that, she said that he has no quest for revenge, not even from the person who shot her. “I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there is a gun in my hand and he stands in front of me. I would not shoot him.”

“I want education for the sons and the daughters of all the extremists especially the Taliban.”

‘Education is the only solution’

Citing the age old phrase that the pen is mightier than the sword, Malala pointed out that the “extremists are afraid of books and pens.”

“The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women. The power of the voice of women frightens them.”

“Education is the only solution. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”

Malala got a standing ovation after her speech.

‘Terrorists are misusing Islam for personal motives’

Malala said that Islam was a religion of peace and equality, but some elements were using it for personal gains.

“They think that God is a tiny, little conservative being who would send girls to hell just because of going to school. The terrorists are misusing the name of Islam and the Pashtun society for their own personal benefits. Pakistan is peace-loving democratic country. Pashtuns want education for their daughters and sons,” she said in her speech.

“Islam is a religion of peace, humanity and brotherhood. Islam says that it is not only each child’s right to get education, rather it is their duty and responsibility.”

Malala Day

July 12, which also marks Malala’s birthday is being observed as Malala Day.

“Do remember one thing. Malala day is not my day. Today is the day of every woman, every boy and every girl who have raised their voice for their rights. Thousands of people have been killed by the terrorists and millions have been injured. I am just one of them,” she said.

A very good speech that essentially humiliated Taliban and all the extremists who are against girls education and want to impose their fossilized mindset on others. Malala deserved this honor that she earned the hard way. Pakistan will become a much better place, should every Pakistani girl start thinking like Malala. May Allah bless you, Malala.

Its sad how we Pakistanis have treated her, and continue to talk trash about her. Pakistan is the only country in the world where more people are hating on her than supporting her cause of education for all.

Last year she almost died with a bullet in head. Today she’s addressing the UN General Assembly. A moment of pride for Pakistan and everyone around the globe who supports equal human rights and education. Love you Malala. The whole world is with you.

Most of our conspiracy theory loving fellow Pakistanis doubt her integrity but in my opinion regardless of that the content of her speech was powerful and one needs to see what is being said rather than who is saying it .

Most of our conspiracy theory loving fellow Pakistanis doubt her integrity but in my opinion regardless of that the content of her speech was powerful and one needs to see what is being said rather than who is saying it .

“Neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorists group.I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there is a gun in my hand and he stands in front of me. I would not shoot him.”
Just imagine the consequences if a politician said this. The media would have no mercy and question them on their pro-taliban stance.

Shame on the people who act as the umbilical chord for the merchants of death and provide justification for their acts of crime and violence. Enough of the nonsense that counter terrorism and drone attacks create terrorists. We have not seen the 50000 victims of acts of violence, or their loved ones turning into terrorists and taking law in their own hand, even after seeing that state institutions including agencies and judiciary have failed them completely. They still have a message of peace and hope. And Malala represents them.

A very inspirational speech. Don’t be jealous all the conspirators, you can never achieve what she has achieved, today whole world is with her, UN gives her standing ovation. You conspirators, even a dog won’t clap for you leave humans. Conspirators should be ashamed of themselves. One correspondent of CNN equated the words of her speech with that of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, an amazing speech. Pakistan really needs boys and girls like her. hats off

@wth:
You are a fool. Is her hijab all you can think about when reading this inspiring story? If while reading the courageous words and her story, and the inspiring words of wisdom, not only now but for several years, you were thinking about why her hair is showing, then you are of the same mindset as the barbarians who shot her and others like her. How sad.Recommend

Malala is a blessing. Only those who are cursed can’t see it. To attribute motives, to see a conspiracy and to deny her simple, decent acknowledgement for her struggles can be done only by those who are lost in their own dark labyrinth!

Being an Indian, I’d never have thought likes of Malala suffer for no mistake of theirs. I’d have never known there is spirit of defiance and spirit of modernity even in backward regions of Paksitan.

And without Malala world wouldn’t know there is a large section of people in Pakistan who oppose the idea of Taliban bitterly. Her achievement is no less than folks who work for decades to create same level of awareness.

Hope she grows to be somewhat of a path breaker and a path maker for Pakistan.

Malala has done more to raise the tattered image of Pakistan than all the politicians, leaders and conspiracy theorists combined. The Taliban stand no chance whatsoever. It’s only a matter of time till they are consigned to the dustbin of history.

May God Bless you Malala! The prayers of millions of Pakistanis are with you and other girls like you. One can only hope that the tyrant fundamentalists will be eradicated from our land one day and innocent girls like you will have the opportunity to receive education. Inshallah.

@Salman: If Pakistan truly thought of her as its daughter she would not have to escape to UK on pain of death. A couple of weeks back the other girl who had been shot also took asylum in UK because she was getting death threats. You cannot take credit for her individual brilliance when as a country you could not protect her. Even Rimsha had to escape to Canada.

@Aysha M: Malala is indeed a role mode
But not sure why you say she is a modern face of Islam. The values she stands for are universal and not limited to any one religion.

The biggest conspiracy ever…. How 1 girl took the bullet literally to the head and is shown perfectly fine in a matter of weeks and no sign of any bullet wound to the head… and then this same girl becomes the face of Pakistan liberalism, quite interesting.

If she is brave then go to Pakistan in her village and live there. Speaking and living in west is easy. They have all got nationality of UK I think and that’s it, she will be running an NGO in the future and make money.

@Aam Paki:
“The biggest conspiracy ever…. How 1 girl took the bullet literally to the head and is shown perfectly fine in a matter of weeks and no sign of any bullet wound to the head… and then this same girl becomes the face of Pakistan liberalism, quite interesting.”

Gabrielle Giffords, an American congresswoman, also survived getting shot in the head. Survival depends on velocity of the bullent and angle of entry, and of course the competence of surgeons.

Since nobody has replied, I am assuming that most people here have no clue of what’s going on at the ground and Why Taliban Movement continues to gather support at grassroot level. The problems of Pakistan (or infact any other country) can never be solved by UN or other foreign country. A change in Pakistan will ultimately depend upon Pakistanis living in Pakistan – particularly the deprived lot as they form majority.

@Charlie Chapatti:
“The Taliban stand no chance whatsoever. It’s only a matter of time till they are consigned to the dustbin of history”

As they say, never underestimate the adversary. Taliban and the clique are not just a crazy lot. For the poor and religious minded people fed up with Corruption all around, Taliban offer a very compelling world vision that the State has failed to match with. One may debate as to what that means for development of rationalism, minority rights, women’s rights and so on in Pakistan; but to say that it is failed by design is wishful thinking. Without getting into much detail I’ll share with you a youtube video explaining Talibanic worldview ->

Imagination is a good thing but please for the sake of sanity stop labelling what happened to Malala as a conspiracy theory! Not everything that goes wrong in Pakistan happens because of a conspiracy theory, its time we owned up to the problems we have instead of blaming them on “conspiracy theories.” As it is our nation is going backwards and with mindsets like this we will slump more into the dark ages!

And here come the conspiracy theorists, how did she recover from a bullet wound? Well she was initially treated by Pakistani doctors and they confirmed that she had a fractured skull and i guess MRI’s and X-Ray reports cant be forged. Many dignitaries visited her including the pro-taliban Imran khan, and if she was not injured someone could have pointed that out. And i guess its only a waste of time explaining so called educated ppl that a 16 yr old girl promoting the positive image of our nation and religion in the biggest international forum is a thing we should all be proud of rather than trying to prove she is a CIA agent. No wonder extremists love pakistan, they come from all over the world to live here, we have alot of educated, un-educated supporters of their mindset who will support them even if they kill innocent ppl in mosques and other places

Taliban must love Pakistan, they threat people, kidnap people,kill people and then claim responsibility openly but everyday i meet educated people telling me that its all done by someone else. Mr Mehsud will be sitting in a cave praising the mindset of this nation Recommend

I hope Malala’s dream comes true and that forces of evil in established circles and illiterates do not stop her and other quiet achievers that just want quality education for all especially the poor and disadvantaged so they can make wise decisions in their lives.

All those Criticising Malala despite her immense courage are cynics. Its strange – a moment when the entire country should be proud of her that a Pakistani – let alone a teenager- gets a standing ovation on a World forum. How many people are able to do that. She is there becuse of her bravery. and courage. People who hate her have a strange sense of envy/jealousy/hate that why is she there and not them. When they themselves are too scared to stand up to the truth. We are a strange nation-happy to pull down our own people in front of the world.

@H Chaudhry:
Dude don’t cry TRUTH is TRUTH but you people don’t like TRUTH.
what do you know about Pakistan’s people?? then why blasts everyday? why OBL upto 10 year? why IMF for loan? in Pakistan.why Pakistan called as FAILED STATE??

Have high hopes from this dedicated teenager. I have a tiny bit of problem, though. If she talked about MLK and Mandela, she must have also mentioned Gandhi as both these leaders followed Gandhian policy of peace and non-violence. If she didn’t, then she has already been politicized. I wish she can be free and talk for the world! We all will support her.

Malala is now a sixteen years old girl, from the land of swat, the home of Yousaf Zais Pashtuns, who defied Emperor Aurangzeb might and refused to pay any tributes or taxes. What she has said in her speech about Islam in the New York world Forum, no other muslim leadere has said it before;

ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE; HUMANITY AND BROTHERHOOD; EDUCATION IS THE SOLUTION:

I don’t doubt her intentions if genuine but she’s being used as a justification for drone strikes. What about children who got killed due to drone strikes and USA’s bombings in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya?
20 years back another girl did the same sort of speech where she accused Iraqi soldiers of committing crimes in Kuwait after the attack but it was all turned out to be a drama and I hope no one needs to know how USA committed a genocide of millions of innocent Iraqis afterwards. They shamelessly even produced a movie named Devil’s Double in order to justify the horrible atrocities they committed on Iraqis. So suspicion over UN and USA also sounds genuine.

@ Naveen
I watched the link you provided and was truly amazed. What amazed me was your statement that you were actually impressed by this simpletons understanding of the workings of a modern state. Their simple world view appeals to those who themselves have a simple world view. Religious extremism has been routed out of power in the West and it is inevitable that the same will happen in the East even if it takes a generation or two. Islam survived before the Taliban came on the scene and will be just fine long after the Taliban are gone and the poor and the religious will be all the better off when they’re gone.

@Adil Uddin
Well I don’t think saddam needed any defamation, he himself was used by America nd he did war crimes no one can imagine of doing. But my point is that how can someone argue that her injury is fake when taliban have claimed the responsibility, nd if they don’t kill children nd innocent y don’t they deny it? They always take pride in kiling, they r killer’s nd nothing more. If you have a choice between malala nd taliban who would you choose? I guess I don’t any doubts who is better

This speech is a slap on the face of TTP and all the Malala haters in Pakistan. God elevates the righteous and no matter how much force and abuse is used to degrade this brave girl, she will always remain above the terrorists. May God bless her and she succeeds in achieving her dream of education for all.

@Waqas: Completely agree with your comments. Generally the Pakistan nation has proved itself as a null-head. While the TTP kill their country men they keep asserting on some “foreign conspiracy” or blame America for droning the innocent TTP who in retaliation kill their country men. This is complete non-sense!! I support drones since they target the terrorists and those “innocents” who give them asylum.

You have a government which will go and bomb pakistani Jihadis just to show “they are fighting terrorism” to get more zakat and weapons from Western countries.

You are suffering because of your own government which uses terrorism to gain strategic depth in Afghanistan. Don’t forget Afghans are Muslims too and they can do the same in Pakistan. Paki ciitizens are blind to what their country is doing in neighboring country. Afghans have power to make Pakistan into an Islamic Emirates of Pakistan.

Its Benazir all over again. ‘Jamhuriat kay lyay qurbani’ is now ‘taleem kay lyay qurbani’. Thats how the propaganda machines work. Getting shot at is not an achievement. We don’t even know the name of the school teacher who escaped the burning vehicle and then came back and died trying to save the children. We don’t know the name of the 23 year old girl who stood in front of an Israeli bulldozer and got run over. We don’t know the names of these heroes because they don’t serve the purpose of the people who own the global propaganda machine. ‘It is easier to fool people than convince them that they have been fooled.’ – Ameer Hamza

To all those who are saying you need guts to stand up for your religion and country in front of the UN, I’m pretty sure each one of us would do the same, given the chance. And as for Malala, no doubt she is a brave young girl who is standing up for the right thing but being a spectator is easy and sitting under the protection of the Western world and letting them take the advantage of her story, in my eyes, isn’t the right thing. She should prove her braveness by coming back to her country. By sitting there and talking, she’s just giving the world another example to pile on the reasons Pakistan is considered one of the most dangerous nations of today. She is hardly under any life threat sitting there. Juzzz’ sayinnnn.

This is against Islam. Islam girls should be wearing burqa always and not go to school. We are following the path of infidels and are promoting obscenity.

Cant believe i just read this, Can you please refer to any Islamic literature that forbids women from getting education? And yeah where it is written that if a girl goes to school she should b killed cowardly?Recommend

great Speech about the education but I wonder why did not she mention about the drone attacks which killed thousand of muslim innocene children and people of north wazirstan are not they human this is the united nation where you can talk about the humunity wake up pakistan pleasee I m not the hater of malala nor i m the fan of malala I just wonder about the children of north wazirstan they also have right for education why did not she mention about their bright future ?????

A great honour for Pakistan and for the children of KP that Malala spoke at a global forum. Sadly most people unable to achieve anything themselves will only trash Malala. Like the Taliban these home-based useless creatures will remain just that and have no effect on Malala’s achievements and the impact of her efforts!

@ Mohammad Ismail: there is no prescribed dress in Islam and burqa is optional. Also education is prescribed for everyone in Islam. Seems like you have been brainwashed. Suggest that you learn about Islam before making such gross remarks.Recommend

@BP and @Insaan Comprehension issues ? Read the damn statement from BP I responded to, a very negative, ignorant and retarded statement. Stop making weak arguments and connections. What kind of assertation is this, “People of Pakistan will never change” ?